Recently, while watching The Death Kiss (1933), a thriller starring Bela Lugosi, David Manners and Adrienne Ames, we heard a slang phrase that was new to us:sleeper jump. Can you guess its meaning?
In the scene in which the term is used, a detective is investigating a murder that has occurred on a set at a movie studio. The detective asks where he can find the makeup man, who might have info that would be beneficial to his investigation.
“The make-up department,” answers the film’s director. “Clear round the end of the block, just the end of F street.”
“Sounds like a sleeper jump,” says the detective.
“I’ll show you if you like,” says the director and off they go.
The context suggested to us that sleeper jump might refer to distance, that the detective was quipping that the makeup department sounded it was quite a distance away, far enough to take an overnight train with a sleeper car.
That was just a guess, but it appears we nailed it.
Turns out, “sleeper jump” was also a term used by vaudeville performers to refer to the least desirable dressing room that typically went to the lowest-billed performer, a dressing room that was several floors up, requiring a climb up multiple flights of stairs (while hauling a heavy wardrobe trunk). And while you can’t take a train to the fifth floor of a building, the idea is the same: a destination that requires something of a slog to reach.
So there you have it—a new vintage slang term. Your homework assignment is to use the term sleeper jump whenever the opportunity presents itself.